Sports bottles, of the type to which this invention pertains, commonly are of a nonbreakable plastic, with a large fill opening and a screw or snap-on cap for closing the opening, and with straw or squirt outlet means provided through or in the cap. The bottles thus are reasonably durable, reusable with most any liquid drink of choice, economical to make and to purchase, and easy to use in that an exerciser can grip the bottle with one hand and take a drink via the outlet means without spilling even while maintaining some exercise pace.
Many exercisers are interested in workouts of extended durations, at either intense or low levels of efforts. Many exercisers thus have available or even carry individual bottles of water or other liquid, to replenish body liquids lost from sweating. Some exercise routines are for extended non-stop durations on a single specific piece of exercise equipment, such as an exercycle, a treadmill, stair climber, etc.; such pieces of equipment now being common at health clubs and elsewhere. These exercisers particularly might seek to take a drink, while maintaining the same exercise pace.
An observed problem seems to be the difficulty exercisers have in finding a place, within reach while remaining on and operating the exercise equipment, for storing the water bottle when not actually drinking from it.
Another challenge common with the use of conventional sports bottles is filling the bottle from a small sink or a water fountain, which frequently are the only convenient sources of water at the health club or beach, etc. Thus, the water jet height or spacing above the fountain nozzle and drain may be small, as it frequently is; or only limited vertical clearance may exist between a water outlet nozzle and underlying sink structure (neither being shown). This means that the sports bottle must be tilted toward the horizontal in order to bring the bottle fill opening close to the water jet to have any water enter the bottle. Consequently, any severely tilted bottle is likely to be filled then, if at all, to only a small fraction of perhaps even less than half of its capacity.
Also, with indoor health clubs being at room temperatures and warmer than preferred for a refreshing drink, many exercisers add ice to the drink to maintain it cooler. This can require time and effort in fitting the ice cubes individually into the bottle fill opening, and moreover dilutes all drinks other than water as the ice melts.